


Like Jewelry From A Grave

by malinaldarose (coralysendria)



Category: Earth: Final Conflict
Genre: Addiction, Angst, Community: trope_bingo, Gen, Trope Bingo Amnesty, Trope Bingo Round 15, Unhappy Ending
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-01
Updated: 2021-01-01
Packaged: 2021-03-10 17:54:34
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 618
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28481247
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/coralysendria/pseuds/malinaldarose
Summary: In the wake of Liam's discovery of his addiction to kryss, Da'an must choose between the real version given to him by Sandoval and the synthetic version supplied by Liam.Content warning for canonical addiction.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 1





	Like Jewelry From A Grave

Da'an stared down at the vial in his hand. It glinted in the bright light from above his chair, the fine crystals within glowing deeply violet. They were beautiful, like this jewel of a planet when seen from his favored spot on the bridge of the Mothership -- and for Taelons, could be just as dangerous. _Like jewelry from a grave,_ went the poem, and Da'an understood the sentiment behind the phrase.

_Kryss._ That which allowed his people to continue to exist on this planet -- and his personal bane. He had attempted an experiment to see if his people could use kryss to bypass their need for core energy.

It had seemed logical. Kryss was manufactured from the flowers that had, millenia ago, been one of the principal foodstuffs of the Taelons on their lost homeworld. They had kept the plants alive on their various Motherships more out of sentimentality than anything else; having become energy-based beings, they had no more need to fuel their bodies with solid matter. But with their core energy reserve now destroyed and extinction rushing toward them, an alternative must be found.

Most of the Taelons posted to Earth in the various embassies used only a sprinkling of kryss every few months or so. Absorbed into the energy pathways through the conduit of the palm, the crystals worked to combat the deleterious effects of Earth's atmosphere. Da'an had increased the amount and frequency he used, then again, then again, then yet again.

Rather than the scientific breakthrough he had hoped for, the result of his experimentation was ignominious addiction, a dependency both on the crystals and on Chairman Federov of Rostok who supplied them. 

He had managed to keep his need for the crystals hidden from the Synod and -- until recently -- from his Protector. How Ronald Sandoval had learned of it, he did not know, but it was from Sandoval that he had received this tiny vial.

On the arm of his chair rested another vial, this one from his Protector, Liam Kincaid. The crystals within were emerald green -- a color that on this planet evoked life and growth. They were also kryss, but a synthetic version, one developed by the human research physician Curzon at Liam's behest. Liam had learned about the Fields where kryss was manufactured in the worst way possible -- by becoming one of the missioners himself. The process was exceedingly painful for the missioners and Liam had faced Da'an afterward in righteous wrath. Da'an rationalized the whole thing; the missioners were volunteers who only wanted to serve the Taelons.

But they _weren't_ all volunteers, and he knew it.

These amethyst crystals might even have come from Liam himself; it would hardly be fair to Liam to let go to waste the pain he had endured as the raw kryss was harvested from his body.

Da'an picked up the second vial, letting it rest in his hand, emerald beside amethyst. He knew from human folklore that amethyst was thought to prevent poisoning, and certainly that was the function of the kryss. The synthetic crystals -- grown in a lab, not the digestive tract of a human volunteer -- worked just as well as the original substance...unless one had become addicted to the original.

And now the choice lay before him. Which vial would he open? Sandoval's or Liam's? He knew which he _should_ use. And yet...the amethyst sang to him, its call like that of the sirens who lured men to their deaths in human mythology -- irresistable and deadly. 

He could not choose. He closed his eyes and tumbled the vials in his hand until he could no longer tell which was which. He set one down and opened the other.

**Author's Note:**

> 1\. This fic fills the Unhappy Ending square on my Trope Bingo Round 15 card. It is posted during the amnesty period.
> 
> 2\. The original prompt was "like jewelry from a grave."
> 
> 3\. This fic references two episodes: "The Fields" (season 3, episode 18) and "Sins of the Father" (season 4, episode 3). In the former, Liam and Renee go undercover and learn about kryss and how it is made. In the latter, Liam learns that kryss is still being made (only manufacture has moved from an underground facility to a space station) and that Da'an is addiction to it.


End file.
